A nurturing and problem-solving approach for abuse-prone mothers

This paper reports on a series of treatment programs for abuse-prone mothers. The basic premise was that abusive mothers could not nurture their children because they had never been nurtured themselves. Therefore, the first requisite was that they be given to without being asked to give back. Hairdressing was chosen as a socially acceptable way to touch, and thus physically nurture adults, as it is considered neither infantile nor sexually questionable. The first group demonstrated that this type of nurturing was helpful in creating a prosocial support network for isolated mothers. However, when problem-solving activity was substituted for nurturing in an attempt to foster the mothers' coping skills, the group disintegrated. The second group was designed to maintain the nurturing element while using group-generated crises to teach problem-solving skills. Findings from the third and fourth groups confirmed the value of this combination, as it did the importance of providing support to staff (professionals and volunteers) in their work with people whose needs are “like bottomless pits” [3]. Expert consultation on the effective use of the small group process to meet these needs was also established as necessary.     

Framing of a Brazilian Crisis: Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment in National and International Editorials

The study analyzes the editorial position of the Brazilian and foreign press in the coverage of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial. By a framing analysis, we aim to understand how the national quality newspapers such as Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo, O Globo, and the international ones as Público, El País, The Guardian, Le Monde and The New York Times organize the events and construct the respective political narratives, verifying the similarities and differences in the interpretation of the political crisis that led to the removal of the first female president of Brazil.     

Student Perceptions of the Way that they are Supervised during Work Experience: an instrument and some findings

This paper is intended as a contribution to the debate and evaluation activity which in the UK is following Dearing's recommendation that more work experience should be provided for more higher education students. The paper gives an instrument for researching students’ perceptions of the roles their workplace supervisors play. Two surveys using the instrument and involving a total of 669 students on different courses in the field of teacher education are reported. In the surveys, the responses of many students suggested that they had received ‘good’ (i.e. theoretically desirable) supervision in the workplace but this was not the case for all students. There were for example clear differences across courses and, in addition, the course whose students appeared to have experienced the least desirable kind of supervision subsequently suffered the highest rate of student drop‐out. In contrast, students who had apparently received the ‘best’ kind of workplace supervision tended to be happier with their workplace experience as a whole. In discussing the findings, the paper draws attention to their limitations, pointing out that much more needs to be known about the work experience which is offered to HE students across the disciplines and across the country. The paper suggests that specific as well as general instruments will probably need to be developed for researching this and suggests that, since it is general, the instrument described in the paper might be useful to other HE researchers who wish to evaluate their students’ work experience. The paper concludes by situating the increasing interest in work experience for higher education students in the wider context in which links between ‘work’ and ‘education’ are becoming increasingly blurred.     

Primo on the Go: A Usability Study of the Primo Mobile Interface

Abstract

Primo Analytics from two campuses of the California State University system has revealed that a dramatically low proportion of Primo searches originate from mobile devices. The current study focuses on usability concerns as one area that may be preventing students from searching the Primo mobile interface. The sample for this study includes students from two campuses with a variety of experience with library instruction and searching the library’s discovery system. Participants were given the same set of six common academic tasks to complete. Both mobile and desktop participants found three tasks relatively easy to complete. When there were differences in completion rates between the mobile and desktop users, the desktop users were overall more successful. No task was consistently difficult for desktop users to complete, while mobile users found two of the tasks very challenging to complete. Based on the findings, the authors make recommendations for improving the experience of mobile users.     

Enabling critical reflection on research supervisory practice

This paper describes the development of an instrument—The Reflective Supervisor Questionnaire (RSQ). The RSQ maps the domain of research supervisory practice as a facilitative process involving educational tasks and activities. It is designed to assist research supervisors explore, by means of self‐reflection and reflection on feedback from others, how they practise supervision. In developing the RSQ 58 items were generated describing 5 hypothesised constructs derived from prior research. The resulting instrument was tested on postgraduate research students in 2 institutions. The questionnaire correlated highly with an established questionnaire supervision scale and with an overall satisfaction measure. Four factors identified in an exploratory analysis closely approximated the hypothesised constructs and extended the theoretical framework being developed. These 4 factors identified 4 subsets of facilitative supervisory practice: Progressing the Candidature, Mentoring, Coaching the Research Project, and Sponsoring Student Participation in Academic/Professional Practice. Issues in the interpretation of the findings and the possible usage in academic development programs of an instrument based on them are discussed.     

Editorial

The field of educational development has a 40-year history of providing continuing education or professional development for academic staff, particularly focusing on improving teaching and learning. However, little has yet been written on the historical origins and development of this field, apart from content analyses of some key journals and books conducted recently. This article asks critical questions about the emergence and evolution of educational development, focusing particularly on Australia. It traces the genealogies of some of its dominant positionings and demonstrates, through historical textual analysis, how some topics, themes and methods have retained their dominance over this 40-year period, while others continue to remain marginal. Finally, it argues for further historical research, particularly employing genealogical historical methodologies, as a means of enabling the field to recover from historical amnesia, develop more critical means of interrogating its underlying epistemologies and creating the possibility for broader, contested futures.     

Supervision – the most variable of variables: student perspectives

The supervision literature often conceptualizes the supervisor as the primary person in doctoral students' progress. Yet, there is growing evidence that the supervisor is but one of many resources that students draw on. Our study takes up this idea in answering the question: What is students' experience of their supervisory relationships over time? Sixteen social science participants in two UK universities, at different points in their doctoral journeys, completed logs of a week's activities for a number of months before being interviewed. This distinct longitudinal approach provides a more nuanced understanding of students' perceptions of the supervisory relationship, specifically, varied reasons for seeking supervisory help, distinct needs related to where students were in their progress, and diverse in which they negotiated and characterized the supervisory relationship.     

‘Things fall apart so they can fall together’: uncovering the hidden side of writing a teaching award application

Teaching awards are now common practice in higher education. However, few award applicants and their writing guides have investigated their experience of writing a teaching award application, a writing process recognised as different from that required in research publication. To systematically research and analyse their personal experiences two successful Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation applicants (Robyn and Thea) and their guide (Coralie) undertook a process of self-inquiry from an autoethnographic perspective. This paper presents a narrative constructed by Coralie, Robyn and Thea to bring into one story their individual autoethnographies. This collective narrative takes the reader beyond the scholarly discussions of benefits and concerns about teaching award schemes prominent in the literature to date, to uncover a previously hidden view of award application writing. From this new viewpoint writing a teaching award application is seen as a process which moves the applicant from a position of certainty and comfort (‘homeliness’), through a period where ‘things fall apart’ as the applicant's sense of ‘unhomeliness’ (disorientation and confusion) increases, to a time where ‘things fall together’ as a newfound sense of ‘homeliness’ that represents growth in the individual as a teacher and a writer. Applicants develop a clearer understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as educators and the confidence to challenge their previous pedagogical practices. As writers they develop attitudes and skills to recognise and to set aside familiar, but limiting, writing strategies.     

Excellent Care for Cancer Survivors: A Guide to Fully Meet Their Needs in Medical Offices and in the Community edited by Kenneth Miller

ABSTRACT

A new librarian offers advice and insights about what she has learned from working at a library within a health science center. The librarian earned her MLIS in spring 2015, and while she had previous teaching experience, she realized there was much more learning needed to properly teach medical, graduate and allied health students, faculty, and residents. In this “one-year on the job” column, the librarian describes the different teaching experiences today’s librarians encounter, and reflects on what she has learned from them and how they shape her view of the profession.